The Frontier Gandhi: His Place in History [1 ed.] 0195774612, 9780195774610

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The Frontier Gandhi His Place in History

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The Frontier Gandhi His Place in History

MS~rejo

KARACHI

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD

NEW YORK

DELHI

1993

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Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford

OX2 6DP

OXFORD NEW YORK TORONTO DELHI BOMBAY CALClJITA MADRAS KARACHI KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE HONG KONG TOKYO NAIROBI DAR FS SALAAM CAPE TOWN MELBOURNE AUCKLAND MADRID

and associated companies in BERLIN IBADAN

Oxford is a trade mark of Oxford University Press

© Uxtord University Press, 1993 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or rover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

First Edition 1993 ISBN 019 577461 2

Printed at Mueid Packages, Karachi. Published by Oxford University Press 5-Bangalore Town, Sharae Faisal P.O. Box 13033, Karachi-75350, Pakistan.

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While I wrote this book, the world did not stand still, thanks to Sajideh, to whom I dedicate this work.

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Contents pagt

Foreword

IX

Preface

XI

.

Introduction

1

1. From the Oxus to the Indus

10

2. Indian National Congress

20

3. Bacha Khan and Mahatma Gandhi

47

4. Badshah Khan and Religion

72

5. The Two-Nation Theory

83

6. Communal Riots

106

7. Badshah Khan and the Pakistan Movement

132

8. Badshah Khan and Abul Kalam Azad

160

178

9. Pakhtunistan and Referendum 10. Pakhtunistan-Rule of the Pathan by the Pathan and for the Pathan 11. Pakhtunistart-lndo-Afghan Factor

195 215

Epilogue

229

Glossary

241

Index

247

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Foreword I had the privilege of observing Mr Korejo's keen sense of political perception as far back as 1945-6, during the crucial elections, while he was completing his college education. Subsequently, he joined the Forest Service and it seems that in the solitude of the forests and national parks a political critic was quietly taking shape in him. However, his urge to give concrete expression to his analytical mind remained dormant till 1973, when he joined the foreign service. In undertaking the present work, he has embarked on a difficult mission; Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, like Mahatma Gandhi, was a controversial personality. Both were aware of the pitfalls of their mission. But both stood their ground, despite opposition from their own people, till the end of their lives. Thus, the very selection of the topic of the book, in itself, is a bold initiative on the part of the author, which should not only be appreciated but also emulated by ·political critics. Leaders and parties must be subjected to objective analysis in a dispassionate manner, as a service to the cause of democracy. This breed of authors stimulates self-analysis and in-party evaluation-an exercise which has unfortunately been neglected so far. The age of dogmatism, self-righteousness and hero worship in our political culture must now come to an end. There is a need to change our outlook, based on pragmatism and realism, in conformity with the fast-changing political scenario all over the world. Political personalities in Pakistan have received a partisan deal, in as much as they have been projected as heroes by their supporters and condemned as villains by their opponents. Balanced and unbiased judgements on them have been rare. In such a partisan political setting. Mr Korejo's pen picture of Bacha Khan is a refreshing departure from the beaten track. He has broken new ground by evaluating Bacha Khan's political

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FOREWORD

mission in a manner worthy of his outstanding calibre. Some of the author's conclusion and comments may not be in consonance with the perceptions and findings of others. But, as suggested by the author himself, no political personality is above controversy, and the final judgement must be left to history. Much of the political confrontation in Pakistan is caused by the rigid positions adopted by parties and their leaders. They tend to see issues in absolute black or in absolute white. Such inflexibility closes the doors to dialogue. Our intellectuals must come forward, explore the grey areas, locate the meeting points and guide the politicians to the avenues of mutual accommodation. I am happy to find such pointers in Mr Korejo's effort. A word about the title of the book. The Frontier Gandhi symbolises Bacha Khan's association with Mahatma Gandhi, whose greatness is recognized and who influenced Bacha Khan's life and mission. Difference of opinion about both existed before independence and persists even now. But that need not minimise our recognition that Bacha Khan was indeed a fearless leader of the independence movement. If his sacrifices to the cause of freedom are given due place in our history, that will advance the goal of federalism and national integration. Karachi 27 April 1992.

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Preface Jatoi House, Karachi. An April morning in 1991. Mustafa and I sipped tea. I had not seen him for a year, a year which had been quite eventful. The country had had three Prime Ministers, and a lot more had happened. As we talked, two Pathans walked in. They had come to invite Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi to participate in the Second Bacha Khan Peace Conference, scheduled for 22-23 April 1991, in Peshawar. Jatoi checked his engagements with his secretary and accepted. The Pathans handed the invitation and left. I too was tempted to get myself invited, but hesitated. When I mentioned this to Mustafa, he promised to do something about it. The next day he confirmed the invitation. On the way to Peshawar, my thoughts travelled back into history. Images of Bacha Khan came to my mind. I saw him for the first time in the late thirties, participating in a Congress rally in a little town three miles south of my village, Murad Korejo, and equally close to New Jatoi, deep in the interior, near the Indus bank. I must have been in the.tenth grade then, and did not quite feel the impact of the occasion. But I recollect having been fascinated by Bacha Khan's towering personality, standing head and shoulders above all others. The flag hoisting ceremony was followed by slogans of Inqihib Zindabad, M.ahatma Gandhi Zindabad, Jawaharlal Nehru Zindabad, and Frontier Gandhi Zindabad. The crowd then sang Bande Matram in chorus. The ceremony ended with a short speech by a khadi-clad Congress leader in a Gandhi cap. He called on the British to quit India and demanded the resignation of the Sindh cabinet. After the ceremony, I walked to the enclosure which had been prepared for the conference sessions, complete with a dais, and seating arrangements for office bearers, delegates, journalists and the general public. I was impressed by the arrangements. The flight from Karachi to Peshawar was smooth. My mind travelled· into the past as flashes of memory flitted across. I

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PREFACE

grew up in a middle class farming family in a typical Sindhi rural setting. Since the days of Mohenjo-daro, my forefathers must have been engaged in farming. Grandmother's stories going back a few generations, describing my ancestors nonaggressive, resigned and simple disposition and their dedication to farming, suggests a settled mode of life. Their faith was probably Buddhist before the Arabs occupied the lower Indus basin. I became aware of the style of Sindh politics during the 1937 elections. Muslim politics always had a feudal flavour. There · were no political parties, no rallies, no speeches, no flag hoisting, no national anthem and no public debate. Our area candidate for the provincial assembly was Khan Bahadur Imam Bakhsh Jatoi, grandfather of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi. He faced tough competition. Election work consisted of contacting heads of clans and tribes, Mirs, pirs, and waderas, who commanded thL vote banks. Support of these vote banks was won through friendly persuasion, social pressures, petty favours, intimidation, threats and even bribes. My father who was respected and influential in the area, threw his weight behind Jatoi. Besides securing his own area for Jatoi, he trespassed into rival territory and succeeded in converting the head of the Korejo clan, or the Jam, in favour of Jatoi, a feat which he performed with finesse, so much so, that the loyalty of the Jam remains firm to this day. Political vendetta is not a new phenomenon in Sindh either. Intimidation on political grounds was practised then, as it is now. Tactics may have changed but the style is the sa.me. In 1937, my father's favourite horse was 'kidnapped' by Jatoi's rival. Today, the horses have been replaced by parliamentarians. The stables are the same, only the inmates have been promoted, and the ransom has gone up. I reached Peshawar. Since my wife adores this city, she had accompanied me. We stayed in the Forest College guest house, among the rose gardens and tree groves that run for miles, beautify the landscape and perfume the air. The place has old memories. Somewhere in the seat of learning next to the guest house is my picture with my name, and the year in which I qualified. The serenity of the place combined with the generous hospitality of our Pathan friends made us feel at home. Even the occasional gun fire from the nearby tribal area,

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Xlll

which broke the silence of the night, sounded like music to our ears. At the conference, during the lunch break, Mustafa introduced me to Khan Abdul Wali Khan, told him about our old association, as well as my background in fanning, forestry, landscaping and diplomacy. He then added that I had been inspired by the conference to write a book on Bacha Khan. 'For or against,' was Wali Khan's spontaneous question, and I replied, 'Factual.' 'Good, I appreciate that, because there is so much prejudice around, that facts are suppressed and objectivity is sacrificed,' he remarked. 'Yes, facts are suppressed,' I reflected for a moment and thought that here was an appropriate title for the book. But when I heard the speech of Ajmal Khattak, in whom I see a spark of a Pakhtun revolutionary still retaining the flavour of Mahatma Gandhi, I changed the title.

MS Korejo

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Introduction The Congress rally close to my village in the late 1930s had raised many questions in my young mind. How was it that there was not a single Sindhi Muslim participating in the meeting, held in an area which was ninety-five per cent Muslim? Was the Congress a Hindu party? If so, what was Abdul Ghaffar Khan doing there? Any political discussion with my father was taboo. I would have been punished for going to a political meeting. But I had my high school teachers, who were highly politicised. My school was about a mile away, set up by a local Hindu philanthropist. I was one of the five Muslim beneficiaries on the roll. My teachers assured me that the Congress stood · for all the Indians, that Sindhi Muslims did not participate because they were illiterate and backward. 'Look at this school. Out of 400 students, only five or six are Muslims, even though we charge little or no tuition fees from the poor.' He informed me that the Congress had started its mass contact campaign, that Abdul Ghaffar Khan, whom he called the Frontier Gandhi, would be visiting a lot more places in Sindh and would enrol Muslims in the cities where Muslims were educated. I was satisfied. As I grew, the haze gradually dispersed and the picture became clearer. The Frontier Gandhi had inspired me to search and discover why Sindh had failed to throw up a leader to match him, and why Sindhi Muslims were far behind the • Pathans in following the Congress. The Sindhi Press, which was active but partisan, could not provide a clear insight. The only influential and 'liberal' Sindhi daily newspaper which projected the Congress line was the Daily Hindu, but its very name eroded its nationalist credibility, and scared away Muslim readership. Somehow it believed, or made one believe, that 'Hindu' was synonymous with 'Indian', and 'Hinduism' with 'Indian nationalism'. But the nationalist interpretation, to be effective had to be shared by the Muslims too, who formed

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THE FRONTIER GANDHI - HIS PLACE IN HISTORY

seventy-five per cent of the population of Sindh. To convince the Sindhi Muslims was not an easy task. Indeed, it was made more difficult by the growing popularity and the expanding network of the Arya Samaj and other fanatic Hindu movements. These movements ha d captured a sizeable Hindu platform and had disturbed the tranquil and tolerant Sindhi society, built by the Sufi intellectuals, both Hindu and Muslim. Belatedly, the Daily Hindu tried to appear nationalistic by renaming itself Hindustan, but the change came too late to influence perceptions. For centuries Sindh had been the haven of Sufis and mystics, both Hindus and Muslims, who preached humanism, love, harmony and unity. Their teachings had transformed Sindh into a land of peace and tranquillity. Hindus and Muslims paid homage to the same saints, dead and alive. Among the followers of Muslim Sufi saints were Hindu intellectuals of the highest calibre. They constituted the human material capable of providing common leadership. These were the people who, together with their Muslim counterparts contributed to Sindhi cultu.re, enriched Sindhi literature and raised the status of the Sindhi language in the eyes of the outside world. The soil of Sindh was fertile enough-a virgin land- for the birth of a leader who could unite the Sindhis into a single entity; a leader, who could be a mystic, a man of God, like Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who could inspire faith and command following. At the same time, he would have to be a liberal politician like Mr Das of Bengal, win the hearts of the illiterate, the deprived, the dispossessed, put a leash on the insatiable greed of the exploiters and disarm the fanatics. The Congress had a chance to groom such a leader. Had Mahatma Gandhi wanted to produce such a man in Sindh, he could have done so. But he did not even make an attempt. While in the Frontier he produced one, Sindh was left to the mercy of the Sindhi Hindu Congress leadership. It produced stalwarts like Acharya Kirpalani, Jairamdas Daulatram, Professor Ghanshyam, Professor Malkani and others, but they did not strike a chord in Sindh as the Khan did in the Frontier. Something was amiss. Their audience was limited to Sindhi Hindus only. The fault did not lie with separate electorates. It did not suit them to expand their audience. Had they attempted to do so, they would have had to yield too much ground, which they chose not to.

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INTRODUCTION

Sindhi Hindus acted as an impenetrable barrier between the Congress and the Sindhi Muslims whose economic exploitation by the Hindus had reached alarming proportions. Hindus filled the government jobs, because the illiterate or half-educated Muslims were not qualified. Most of the farm land owned by the Muslims was passing into Hindu ownership, as the debts owed to Hindu moneylenders, once incurred, could never be repaid under the manipulative money lending system practised by the Hindus, and the extravagant manner in which the landowning Muslims spent money. Sindhi Muslims saw their salvation in the separation of Sindh from the Bombay Presidency. That demand was opposed by the Hindus, who . formed only twenty-five per cent of the population, even though, after separation, they had the prospect of getting weightage of up to forty per cent. They opposed the separation, saying that bankrupt Sindh could not stand alone, and that it needed the crutches of Bombay to survive. The wealth generated by Sindh was possessed by the Hindus who evaded taxes and caused bankruptcy. Not long after it became a province, Sindh generated a surplus, thanks to the inherent strength of its farming sector. Could any Sindhi oppose Sindh's autonomy? This was an un-Sindhi or an anti-Sindhi posture. The same hostile attitude was reflected in the Nehru Report (1928) which conceded the separation of Sindh with strings attached to please the Sindhi Hindus. No such rider was put on the NWFP getting full provincial status because it was a Congress stronghold, even though it was much poorer. Nationalist Muslims who signed the Nehru Report did so as blind followers of Nehru, otherwise they would have warned him of the adverse reaction of the Sindhi Muslims. Thus, the Sindhi Hindus offered their province to the Muslim League on a silver platter. The Congress tried to salvage its standing in Sindh by supporting a few overambitious Sindhi Muslims, but this was a half-hearted attempt, and it came too late. It proved counter-productive. By then the Muslim League had established its presence effectively. While the Muslim League began to capture the Sindhi Muslim platform almost unchallenged, the Congress chose to adopt the role of a spectator to a potentially disastrous development. The Hindu youth began to strengthen the ranks of fascist groups like the Arya Samaj, the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha .

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THE FRONTIER GANDHI - HIS PLACE IN HISTORY

Communal confrontation became inevitable. The Masjid Manzalgah riot of Sukkur was one of the ugly manifestations of this confrontation. Deeply upset by the Sukkur riots, the Congress Working Committee called for a report by one of its leaders. The report submitted in 1939 made the startling revelation that, 'Communal prejudice and social reaction among Sindhi Congressmen were alienating Muslims from the Congress in the province. Congress MLAs in Sindh who represent the trading and educated class among the Hindus [have] cast away Congress principles and programme to the winds by obstructing · and sometimes even nipping in the bud legislation which aims at ameliorating the condition of [the] Muslim masses in Sindh who are mainly agriculturists and are weighed down by poverty . and debts .... As long as the Congress is confined to the urban Hindus and acts as a cheap edition of the Hindu Mahasabha, there is no very bright future of the Congress amongst the down trodden and ignorant Muslim peasantry of Sindh.'1 The Muslim mass contact movement launched by the Congress in the late thirties was a clear indication of the fact that its popularity and support among the Muslims was eroding rapidly. While the Congress attempted to contradict the allegations of the excesses committed against the Muslim culture during the tenure of the Congress ministries (1937-9), it could not hide the infiltration of fanatic and intolerant Hindus within its active cadres. Reports of such infiltrations began to pour in. For example, an Arya Samaj preacher had been elected as President of the Balrampur Congress Committee, and he used his position and pressure tactics to preach Shuddhi to the Hindus and Hindu-Muslim unity to the Muslims. 2 The visits of Abdul Ghaffar Khan to various places in Sindh as a part of the Congress Muslim mass contact campaign have to be seen against the backdrop of the loss of credibility of the Congress as a national party. The question arises as to whether the Khan was equipped to rescue the sinking ship of the Congress in Sindh. Did he provide a healing touch to the economic wounds inflicted on the Sindhi Muslims? Did he take the Sindhi Hindus to task for tarnishing the Congress image in Sindh? Did he recommend to the Congress high command that the Congress hierarchy be restructured in Sindh to win Muslim sympathy on the lines of the NWFP? No record has

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INTRODUCTION

yet surfaced to that effect. It was pretty obvious that the Sindhi Hindus were hard nuts for Abdul Ghaffar Khan to crack. In that situation, the job could have been admirably done by Gandhi, or by Nehru or even by Vallabhai Patel. But it seems that the Congress relied upon the economic clout of the Sindhi Hindus to win the final round, and that the visits of Abdul Ghaffar Khan were calculated to pacify the ego of the nationalist Muslim leadership within the Congress ranks. When Abdul Ghaffar Khan toured Sindh for the Congress mass contact campaign, he was kept insulated from the objective conditions. Mere flag-hoisting and speech-making could not win Muslim recruits. If he seriously wanted the Sindhi Muslims to follow the lead given by the Pathans, he should have tried to demolish the barrier erected by the Sindhi Hindus, as the first step. But either he did not see the barrier, or the barrier proved too tough for him. Years before, he had seen similar conditions in Bengal, and as a believer in non-violence, he recommended that Bengali Muslims accept the slavery of the Hindus and join them in expelling the British. The Bengali Muslims, however, were in no mood to listen to him. British slavery was subtle; it acted like a sedative which lulled them to sweet dreams for more than a century. Hindu slavery was crude, like a blunt knife, which hurt every moment. Unlike Sindh, in the Frontier, the Pathan leaders had many cards to play: their sensitive geographical location, their strategic Khyber Pass, their lucrative Afghan-Central Asian connection, their proficiency in the use of the sword and the gun, their dynamism, their feat of recapturing the Kabul throne, their moneylending techniques, which surpassed even those of the Sindhi Hindu moneylenders, etc. The Congress had to spread out the red carpet for them. By contrast, in Sindh, the boot was on the other leg. Here, the Hindus formed a solid base for the Congress which had been strengthened by the forty per cent weightage given under the Government of India Act, 1935. On the political chess board the Muslim members of the Sindh Assembly were the pawns, being traded around by a few ambitious prospective Chief Ministers, at the mercy of the solid Hindu group, who turned the ministerial chairs into musical chairs. In the short run, the game paid dividends to the Sindhi Hindus. In the long run, the Congress lost Sindh.

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THE FRONTIER GANDHI - HIS PLACE IN HISfORY

For, ultimately, democracy is the game of numbers, and, on the day of reckoning, the illiterate Muslims, or the ]utts as they were popularly called by their Hindu brethren, did not think twice. To an average Muslim, Pakistan meant, 'get rid of the bania supremacy now, and the future will take care of itself.' Am I qualified to write on Abdul Ghaffar Khan? The decision was hard to make. He has written his autobiographya relatively simple task for a political personality, who has lived through momentous events, and who has participated in the freedom movement, and worked for the social uplift of his people. The autobiography has an introduction by India's top ranking leader, the late Jaya Prakash Narayan. Besides, a detailed biography has been written by a reputed Indian author, who also has the distinction of being the author of a biography of Mahatma Gandhi's, and who had full access to the first hand source material on the Khan. His political heirs, who have the benefit of his intimate association, his inspiration, his guidance and have· shared his lifelong experiences and sufferings, have also written on him. In comparison, I begin with a handicap. I am too remote, my knowledge is second hand. All I possess is my fascination with his personality and my school-boyish memory of a single visit, more than half a century ago. If I fail to do justice to the subject the reasons will be obvious. . What I have said in the book is based on bits and pieces of printed material assembled and arranged to construct a profile which is by no means complete. I believe that more research is needed to project the personality of Abdul Ghaffar Khan and to correct me if I have erred. Leaders of the subcontinent have been the victims of prejudice, both positive and negative, with the result that their real image remains blurred. Such attempts tend to reduce history to fairy tales, and the new generation is fed on emotion and dogma. Consequently, heroes tum into villains and vice versa. Abdul Ghaffar Khan is one of the victims of unfair treatment at the hands of his adversaries as well as his admirers. We owe it to history to separate facts from fiction and present the man, the saint, the politician, the social reformer, the freedom fighter, that he really was, and not the one we wish to see in him. To be authentic, history has to be frank and unforgiving. Its verdict on politicians can

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INTRODUCTION

be severe and merciless, for they carry the delicate responsibility

of making or unmaking nations. Keeping this yardstick in mind, any attempt to write on Badshah Khan is a challenge. Was he a pan-Pakhtunist, an Indian nationalist, a Pakistani citizen, a citizen of the world, a saint, a Khudai Khidmatgar, a jail bird, an obstinate Pathan or a superman? Whatever he was, he was one of the most extraordinary personalities of his age. Some ofilis words and deeds were enigmatic, intriguing and full of contradictions. But don't all great men have unusual personalities? History is incomplete without exposing such contradictions. Mahatma Gandhi led hundreds of millions of Indians to freedom and yet he was a riddle to his most ardent and devoted followers. He preached non-violence and he fell victim to violence. Western-styled Jinnah became the Quaid-i-Azam of a hundred million Muslims, leaving the traditional Muslim leadership the religious elites out in the cold. Badshah Khan became the uncrowned king of the Pakhtuns of the world! Can his position be assailed because he had the courage (or audacity!} to resist the tidal flow of Muslim politics in the mid-twentieth century? The reader will find answers to most of these questions in the following chapters. This is not a biography but a political profile, an analytical study, of Bacha Khan's political struggle. He had his achievements and he had his failures. All fighters do not win, and all winners do not rule. Bacha Khan had a religious dimension and a political dimension. His faith influenced his politics and his politics influenced his faith. Both have been discussed at great length. His role has been viewed in relation to the events he lived through and which dominated the greater part of the current century. His interaction with his great contemporaries, namely, Mahatma Gandhi, Quaid-iAzam Mohammed Ali Jinnah and Maulana Abu! Kalam Azad, has been subjected to a detailed and indepth scrutiny, not to assign a grade or a status to him, in relation to them, but to judge their respective merits and judge him on his own merits. In the politics of the subcontinent, conflict of opinion and disagreement to the point of confrontation, have been the rule rather than an exception. Many writers have consequently lost •

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THE FRONTIER GANDHI - HIS PLACE IN HISTORY

objectivity. To move closer to the truth, I have tried to test the veracity of one source against the evidence gathered from another source. The credibility of each source has been verified from a neutral source. If the source is British, it has been verified against another British source. If the source is Congress, I have relied upon the top Congress leaders. Events pertaining to Pakistan have been put to test by subsequent events within Pakistan. Bacha Khan's thoughts, words, and actions after independence have been allowed to be supported or contradicted by his political adversaries and commentators, whose opinions need not be considered as the judgement of history. This work has been facilitated by the availability of a variety of sources, including British, Indian and Pakistani. Out of the lot, one source presented some problems: that is Wali Khan's book Facts Are Facts - The Untold Story Of India's Partition. To me, the central theme of that book is the projection of Abdul Ghaffar Khan and his Khudai Khidmatgars, to which there can be no objection. But he has attempted to accomplish the objective by down-grading Jinnah and the Muslim League. Jinnah appears as a villain of the extreme variety, a traitor to India, and a British agent. I was tempted to ignore Wali Khan's work but that would have been a disservice to history. In dealing with his approach I also encountered a technical difficulty. His quotations are too brief to establish a context, and too selective to qualify as credible source material. To inspire confidence, a judgement must be comprehensive, objective and balanced. No personality, situation or event, in the Indian setting, appears as clear as back and white. There are a lot of grey areas in every case, which must be probed in depth. The irony is that both Jinnah and Bacha Khan hi\ve been misunderstood by their rivals and their admirers. Both were disliked by the mullahs. Both earned the fatwas of Kafir from the fundamentalists. But both had their own perceptions, which differed. Jinnah does not need the crutches of the Muslim League, nor does Abdul Ghaffar Khan need the crutches of his political heirs. Both stand on their own pedestals, and both created history. I have therefore reluctantly taken the liberty of quoting extensively from the scholarly works of some authors, not to defend Jinnah or Bacha Khan, or to silence their critics, but to clear the perspective, only to the extent, that such •

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INTRODUCTION

an exercise was found relevant to the mission of Bacha Khan. Since this is not a biography, but an analysis of historical and political events and personalities, which have a bearing on the personality, faith and politics of Bacha Khan, the book has not taken the shape of a narrative, beginning from his early life, and ending with his last days. Instead, the book is divided into topics, assuming the shape of chapters; each chapter is self-contained, as a result of which some repetition of a comment or a quotation becomes unavoidable. Finally, this is not a verdict, but a view, an opinion and an analysis. Opinions change and views alter when more information becomes available, or the same event is interpreted differently. The final verdict is left to history. NOTES I. Singh, Anita Inder, TlrL Origins of the Partition of India (1936-47), Oxford University Press, Delhi, p. 40, quoting Report on S11kkur Riots to Congress Working Committee, AICC file No. 1, 1939...0, p. 18. 2. Ibid., p. 40, quoting AICC file No. 20, p. 657, rontaining letter from Ambib

Charan, dated 4 April 1937.

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1 From the Oxus to the Indus •

The Moghul Empire began to disintegrate in India after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. The Marathas, the Jatts and the Sikhs had inflicted crushing blows and brought extensive territories in north, central and south India under their effective control. Besides, the East India Company appeared on the scene and its trading had assumed political dimensions. Against this l-ackdrop, Shah Waliullah (1703-62) rose to prominence and rl•kindled the waning spirit of Islam on the lines of his Arab